Food giant Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) posted mixed third quarter-earnings results, as profit beat estimates but revenue fell short of expectations.
The Pittsburgh-based company reported Q3 EPS of $0.83, a full nine cents better than Wall Street’s $0.74 estimate. Revenue rose 2.4% from last year to $6.27 billion, slightly missing the $6.3 billion analyst forecast.
KHC noted that pricing of its food products fell 0.7 percentage points in the latest period, hurt by key commodity deflation in the United States, primarily in meats and coffee. Kraft Heinz’s volume/mix fell 0.3 percentage points, due to lower shipments across several categories, especially cold cuts, food service and nuts in the United States.
The company commented via press release:
Overall, our third quarter results are a good representation of where we are as a company,” said Kraft Heinz CEO Bernardo Hees. “While our financial performance is respectable, we continue to have the opportunity to improve our offerings and retail execution in several key markets and take our brands to places they don’t currently compete. Our focus now is to finish 2016 strong and set the stage for another year of strong, profitable growth in 2017.
Kraft Heinz shares were unchanged in after-hours trading Thursday. Prior to the report, KHC had gained 18.54% year-to-date, versus a 2.45% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.
